Well said. The biggest difference between Krav Maga and Krav Magen, since Eli Avikzar is in my lineage, is this: Imi never did Judo or Aikido in any serious enough manner as to earn rank. Eli Avikzar earned advanced Black Belt degrees. http://www.kami.org.il/new/founder_eng.asp

While Imi and Eli collaborated on building defenses against the skills in Judo and Aikido, Eli's understanding went much deeper in these areas. This is but one reason he was the obvious choice to replace Imi as chief Instructor of Krav Maga and Fitness to the IDF when Imi retired.

It was Imi who approved of Eli Avizar's seeking training in other arts in order to develop those defenses. In my opinion, he was younger and thus more capable than Imi of doing so with speed and proficiency.

This is where KM took other turns as well. As in our lineage, which is - Imi, Eli, Itay Gil, Moshe Katz then myself. Much of what we do was heavily influenced by Itay's direct training with Eli Avikzar. Yes, we are different from IKMA, IKMF, KMWW (KMAA) and any others I have seen. But, I respect anyone who is doing something to better defend themselves and their loved ones. I am biased though !

Yes and no, you will see a strong influence from Judo, Aikido, and JJ/BJJ in that IKI utilizes far more whole body (gross motor) skills in it's techniques. For instance we NEVER grab a gun by the muzzle with one hand without first securing enough control over the entire limb to prevent an aggessive attacker from simply yanking it back or redirecting the muzzle back at us and shooting!

However, the influence is not in any way like the original applications of such holds from any of the above arts.

I know this is a vague answer, but it's just not easy to describe in typed format. Without pics, video or being in person it's really hard to give an adequate perspective. You can see some of what I mean in some videos I posted on you tube. Just search for Cottonwood Combat.

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"That is the most necessary and difficult thing in krav maga - that I must be so good that I don't have to kill" or in regard to punishing an attacker "Why do you want to break a dead man's bones?" Translated from Imi Lichtenfeld in Cleveland, OH 1984

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Member of DaJoGen MMA school under Dave Hagen and Team Chaos fight team under Denver Mangiyatan and Chris Toquero, ran out of Zanshin Martial Arts in Salem Oregon: http://www.zanshinarts.org/Home.aspx,